Erik Satie, an early 20th century avant-garde composer, basically invented the study album when he created the world's first "furniture music" - organized sounds that, much like a nice ottoman or rocking chair, can fill a room without becoming its focal point. British noise duo Fuck Buttons' Street Horrrsing is an album that essentially fulfills that function - it's aurally pleasing, technically proficient and most importantly, able to blend into the background as you hit the books. A lush mixture of sonic textures and loops, the album is a series of slow crescendos that travel from ethereal ambiance to droning noise and back again. This ebb and flow, though perhaps a bit intimidating for casual listening, will perfectly complement your attention span while attempting to tackle a particularly dense passage of Heidegger or Derrida - it disappears into the background immediately after you press play, but just as your mind begins to wander from the page, the music jars you back into consciousness. Until they figure out how to get caffeine and nicotine into mp3s, that's about as good as study albums are going to get.

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